In a wireless communication environment, there are location technologies available today to determine a physical location of a wireless device, whether the device is installed in a fixed or semi-fixed location (e.g. a base station or access point), or is a mobile device.
To the extent that a technology can provide location coordinates, at least in some situations, it may be viewed as a “black box” and referred to as a stand-alone technology. These stand-alone technologies may share, for example, microprocessors, radios, antennas and other interfaces with other modules in a device; and may also include multiple network entities that are not co-located. However, acting as a system or subsystem they have external interfaces that will provide, or can be queried to provide, location coordinates. They typically are also able to indicate when coordinates are not available.
Such stand-alone location technologies include global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) (e.g., GPS), beacon systems (e.g., LoJack), signals of opportunity, WiFi positioning using location almanacs, and hybrid techniques (e.g., Cell ID (CID), Enhanced Cell ID (E-CID), Angle of Arrival (AOA), Uplink Time Difference of Arrival (U-TDOA), and Assisted Global Positioning Systems (A-GPS)).
However, such stand-alone techniques are sometimes unable to provide location coordinates (e.g., indoors or other unfavorable locations). Some of these technologies are cost prohibitive for installation in a small mobile device. Hybrid techniques, that may combine data from several stand-alone technologies, have drawbacks that include dependency on cellular infrastructure and insufficient accuracy.